Athens - Day Two

We finally succumbed to the jet lag and slept until almost noon on our second day here. We had arranged for our friend George the taxi driver to take us on a full day tour of Athens and Cape Sounia. We stumbled to the roof deck of our hotel when we finally got up for some food and to snooze in the sun.

At 1:00, George arrived and we began our tour in downtown Athens. Our first stop was the National Archeology Museum. We saw loads of artifacts and sculptures with huge peeps. Seth giggled a lot and Jamie got yelled at because Seth told her to go through a door she wasn't allowed to. We narrowly escaped prosecution and a Singapore style cane beating and made our way to watch the changing of the guards in front of the President's House. According to George, the men who have this job are members of the Army, and are specially chosen. He told us they must be tall and handsome and suggested that Seth apply. The ritual we watched was very cool and included some synchronized stepping by the guards and some yelling in Greek. George also told us that the President is very popular and modest, he doesn't even live in the President's house, he only works there. This would be like Obama living somewhere other than the White House. Our next stop was to see the Olympic Stadium where the first games in 1896 were held. It is right in the middle of the city. George also took us to one of the highest points in the city for more panoramic pictures. We walked up a ton of stairs (and burned off last night's tzatziki) and saw a church that was more then 700 years old.

Finally, we were off to the ancient ruins. We started at Zeus's Temple and then went to the Acropolis. Both structures are difficult to describe without being there. You come across these gigantic columns made so long ago in the center of this bustling city that are still standing. Imaging the history made us awestruck. The Acropolis sits on the edge of the city (which is what Acropolis means in Greek) and is way above everything else, so the views are amazing. We took some fantastic pictures. We read about the restoration projects and listened to all of the different languages being spoken around us. We learned the international sign for "please take my picture" which consists of waving and gesturing. Jamie is apparently a magnet for such requests.

If you can believe, all of this was jam packed into 4 hours and we were ready to start our trip up the coastline to Cape Sounia and Poseiden's Temple. First, we needed to refuel from the serious walking workout we had. George started driving along the coast out of Athens where we stopped at a grill to get souvlaki and gyros. We got pork and chicken with salad and tzatziki inside and were in total heaven. At the meal, George told us about his family and his travels and when we told him we are lawyers he treated us to some lawyer jokes. (One was actually funny). After that excellent meal (a snack for Seth and George) we made our way back to the car for our scenic drive up the coast. George drove for about 60 km and we saw the most beautiful coastal homes and towns (in between snoozes). We decided that when we can afford 7000 euro per meter we would buy a house there. We finally arrived at Cape Sounian and Poseiden's temple right at sunset. We climbed up yet another hill (the Greeks like to build structures up high) and were treated to a gorgeous sunset. The sky couldn't have been more perfect. It was quite romantic and we took loads of beautiful pictures.

We got back to our hotel around 9:30 and somehow Seth managed to drag us out for dinner. Apparently 10:00 is the magic hour for eating as the tavernas were all packed. We ate at an old taverna off the beaten path in the Plaka known for its seafood. We scored a table outside up a small hill with a lovely view. Seth was quite adventurous and ordered greens despite the waiter's warning that only Greeks like them. Of course, Seth ate the entire portion himself. We walked home after dinner, enjoyed a glass of champagne and went to sleep. A great end to a busy day!

Woohoo Athens!

We made it! After our perfect wedding (we couldn't have asked for anything better), Seth and I made our way home, packed up our stuff and headed to the airport.  Much to Seth's happiness, he managed to score some passes to the Continental President's Club. We ate our weight in cheese, crackers and fritos. Seth was happy. Our flight was slightly delayed but fairly uneventful. The most exciting part was the man in front of Seth who was about 6'7" and 400 pounds, who Seth nicknamed Tiny.We arrived in Athens and were greeted by our driver George (we were surprised at how unique his name is). George took us to our hotel, called Fresh Hotel, an extremely modern boutique in downtown Athens. We were happily upgraded to an "executive suite" (which means the room has a couch) and greeted with champagne and fruit. Hooray for honeymoons! The hotel is extremely quiet, allowing for tons of relaxing. It has a great rooftop bar, restaurant and pool and we have lounged up here a lot.

George was kind enough to give us running commentary about where we were and great places to visit. After we checked in and took a power nap, Seth and I finally ventured into Athens around 3:00 on Tuesday. We got lost, over and over, but had a blast doing it. We walked through a few neighborhoods called Psyri, Monastrika and the Plaka. We shopped a bit, I bought a sweater and Seth bought booze. Very uncharacteristic, we know. We watched people, trying to figure who were tourists and who were locals (not an easy task). We ran into Hadrian's Library, no books, just archaeologists! This city is amazing how you can walk through a flea market and come to see a building from 132 A.D.

On our way to dinner, we stopped at Brettos for a drink. It is the oldest distillery in Athens and makes some killer brandy, ouzo and flavored liquors. We were welcomed by the owner and treated to drinks and tastes of many liquors. I tried a cinnamon liquor and a drink with raki, similar to grappa and made in Crete. Seth tried some 7 year old brandy straight from the barrel. After we were sufficiently happy with booze, we headed to dinner at a place that is supposed to be one of the best in Athens.

The restaurant is called Paradosiako and is in the Plaka. There are about 10 tables in the whole place. The menu is handwritten and they only serve what is fresh that day. We ordered tzatziki, a greek salad, a fresh grilled fish and sausage. One might think this was too much food. You would be right, but with Seth there, the  only thing left at the end of this amazing meal was fish head and some full tummies.

From my phone?

Blogger has created a monster! Now everyone can know where I am at all times!!

S - this is MJ's fault!

something is in the air today

on the way to the 7 train this morning, within 200 feet i saw:

(1) 4 guys preaching
(2) 2 people with signs asking for money
(3) 1 accordion player

even britney on my ipod couldn't tune that out.

gym observations

i try to go to the gym during the week in the mornings before work. i made a deal with myself that if i actually wake up by 730 i can take a taxi to the gym instead of the subway. bribing myself seems to have worked and i actually make it to the gym three to four times per week.

it has turned out to be nice getting the gym out of the way in the morning and i feel like i have a lot more energy now. but going to the gym in the morning also has its downsides (besides the obvious early morning wake-up), because i also have to get ready for work in the dreaded gym locker room. at first it was brutally awkward (being a high maintenance girl) but i finally have the routine down to about 30 minutes, start to finish. picking out my clothes ahead of time seems to cut out about 15 (fine, 30) minutes of my morning routine. go figure.

as noted, i used to think that i am high maintenance. in some ways, i am. but spending this much time in a gym locker with about 30 women coming and going at a time has made me realize that either i am actually low maintenance, or there are some crazy women out there. (or maybe it is a mixture of both).

some of the things i see in the locker room while women get ready are mind boggling. for example, i have seen:

(1) a women emerge from the shower fully dressed

(2) a women who puts baby oil all over her body and then sits and waits until it dries before getting ready

(3) a woman who clipped her nails (hands and feet) while standing naked in the middle of the locker room

(4) a woman who spent 45 minutes using a hair straightener for shoulder length hair and then proceeds to use tweezer on the top of her head to pull out flyaways.

this is just a sampling. trust me, there are loads more bizarre habits i try desperately to ignore, not to mention the fact that it appears that the heavier a woman is, the more likely she is to walk around the locker room completely naked. for extended periods of time. i have to wonder if these woman are just letting all of their crazy out in the locker room for everyone to see and frankly not caring or if this is their edited version of crazy. this thought scares me not only for humanity, but for my males friends who might actually date some of these women.

the list

i keep a list of the restaurants i want to visit and those where i have already eaten. (disclaimer: i keep a lot of lists, but i am only going to divulge this one so i don't seem nearly as crazy). not too long ago, i was reading one of the many nyc food blogs i follow, where i saw a small entry discussing wd-50, a small restaurant on the lower east that has been around for a few years. the chef/owner is fairly famous for his bizarre take on common foods and wd-5o had been on my list for some time.

the blog hinted that wd-50 was shrinking its hours and staff and might not exist much longer. not wanting to miss the chance to eat there, i made a reservation for s and i the following friday night.

the restaurant has been written about a lot and as i was recently told, i am pretty late to the party. my two cents - the food and wine were great (and in correlation quite expensive) and the service was mostly good. s and i had a fun time trying out these dishes and chatting with the people sitting to our left who were visiting from out of town and eating the tasting menu. the best thing i ate was the chef's take on eggs benedict.

the cubes are the hollandaise sauce, next to the cubes are the eggs (the yellow curls) and the crispy brown bacon. the chef truly loves eggs. and so do i.

the award for the most interesting presentation had to go to s's appetizer - the octopus.

sadly, it didn't taste nearly as cool as it looked. but it looked pretty damn cool.

wedding planning galore

the first of march came around and suddenly s and i were bombarded with reminders that the wedding is TWO MONTHS AWAY! the world is ending, the planning must begin and i must stop ignoring the emails from the knot telling me about all of the things we are not doing.

in an effort to head off future meltdowns, s and i sat down one fine sunday night and made a list of everything we needed to do over the coming weeks. our tasks mostly entailed checking in with our vendors to make sure that everything was ok (i.e. they remembered who we were, that they were still in business and ready to show up looking clean and shiny on may 17th). all of our vendors are top notch and got back to us quickly and with much enthusiasm to be part of our day.

that being said, the award for most committed vendor must go to our photographer. i emailed him to say hi and to start discussing scheduling for the morning of the wedding. in response, i received an out of office message stating that he was out of the country on a photo shoot and would return emails on march 21. no biggee, i am ahead of the curve so i could have waited.

two hours later i get an email from him apologizing for the brevity of his email and letting me know he was traveling from ethopia to dubai on a photo shoot. seriously. he emailed me from some very far away country about my wedding in may and even remembered who i was? amazing. add to the fact that he can actually take pictures and i am feeling really confident.

as a side note, where do i find the job where i can take pictures in ethopia and dubai?